Morocco 5: This is why I don't use Tour Groups

Before coming to Morocco, I had discovered that about forty five minutes away from Marrakech, there is a rock desert that looked just as beautiful as sand deserts.  I wanted to do an excursion there.  The hotel's advertised groups were very expensive and fairly simple, so I looked online.  Through Tripadvisor, I found a five star rated excursion that would bring us to both the town of Imlil, near the mountains, as well as bring us to this desert.  There were fifty reviews and the people that made the reviews had multiple reviews under their belts, so it was real.  The price was reasonable and it would be an entire day trip.

We were picked up with the rest of the tour group about five minutes from our hotel, at just after 9:00 AM.  The van was spacious and the seats were decent.  It was an English speaking tour and the guide seemed very friendly.  As we began driving, he confirmed that our last stop would be to the Agafay Desert.  Our first stop was to do camel rides.

This was not something I particularly cared to do, but since it was included on the itinerary anyway, I figured that Miles would enjoy it.  We arrived at a small encampment on the side of the road and saw other groups doing rides on camels that were tied less than a foot away from each other.  The camels were forced down onto the ground for the people to get on them.  They were not happy, and struggled.  One was tied to a tree nearby and appeared to be ill.  I did not want to partake in this and neither did Stephanie.  Apparently no one else in our group had qualms with the situation.  I did not want to upset Miles, so I kept my mouth shut.  Everyone was dressed in Arabic clothing and they went walking for about 20 minutes or so.

While they were gone, I spoke softly to one of the camels, slowly walking over to him/her, and began carefully petting its cheek.  After a few minutes, it was moving its neck toward me, for me to continue petting.  I felt good about bringing a little bit of joy to this animal's day.  It was all I could do.  When Miles returned, instead of having them force the animal down, I had him fall off the side into my arms.



The next stop was for breakfast at what I believe was an argan oil women's coop.  We sat at a table in the back and were served mint tea and Moroccan bread with olive oil, argan oil, and some other oil that I didn't try.  Then, we were given a brief demonstration about how argan oil is made and were shown samples of finished products.  We were quickly loaded back into the van.

We stopped a few more times simply to walk out and take scenic photos, before finally arriving at Imlil.  Imlil seemed to be a series of connected villages on a mountainside.  We hiked a short way up to take photos from a building terrace before hiking farther to a waterfall.



After the waterfall, we walked in another direction towards a series of houses.  I had befriended a young German fellow and his mother once we had reached Imlil and were waiting in line for the bathrooms.  After leaving the waterfall, I began talking to him about traveling and other things, and we must have slowed the pace down, because we had lost the group.  To be fair, Stephanie and I lost the group before the terrace because I had slowed to take pictures and Stephanie slowed down to wait for me.  A local woman saw that we were going in the wrong direction and shook her head.  We tried another path and again she indicated that we were not going the right way, so she came back to where we were and showed us the correct way.

We arrived at a four story house/building.  On the top floor there was another terrace, along with an inside room that had views to the outside.  The group decided to stay indoors and we were sat at large, round tables.  We were sat with another young german couple that we later found out to be around the same age as the two other girls at the table, which was 21.  We felt old.  The two girls were from Belgium, not far from the Netherlands border.

We were served a delicious Moroccan salad that was mostly tomato and peppers, followed by a dish of egg, vegetables, and meatballs, while Stephanie was served her own vegetarian dish, though also with egg(which I would not consider to be vegeterian).  We had very interesting conversations with the kids, about what they were going to school for, what tv shows they were watching(the couple was near the end of Dexter), and about their countries.

This was the view from the terrace at the end.  I was taking pictures into the sun.

After quite a while, we walked right up the road to where our van was waiting.  It was time to go to the desert, or so I thought.  After a long and very bumpy ride, we arrived... at another terrace, that overlooked terrain.



The guide pointed out that the Agafay desert was off in the distance.  The sun was setting.  This was the end.  So, what ended up as a singular desire to see the desert ended up not seeing the desert at all, despite an 11 hour day.  Additionally, I dealt with some bad stomach problems all day, along with terrible allergies, going through two tissue packets.

I pulled up the TripAdvisor website of the tour, whose head picture showed a table in the middle of the desert.  I was upset, and was walking back to the van, when I mentioned to the German fellow who I had spoken to earlier on the walk, that I was disappointed.  He said that he was disappointed too, as he had also specifically chosen this tour just to see the desert.  I turned around and approached the tour guide.

I explained my problem.  He proceeded to point out that the desert was right there!(20 miles in the distance)  I explained that that is not what was advertised.  There were two headliners of the tour.  The desert named first, followed by the Atlas Mountains(Imlil).  He said that there was not enough time.  I said that we had eleven hours, which was plenty of time, and that they either need to make time, or that they shouldn't name the tour after the desert or show that picture.  It was false advertising.

To make a long story short, I ended up getting a fifty percent refund, in cash, and they pleaded not to ruin their reputation on Tripadvisor.  I agreed, but explained that they needed to change it.  Afterward, the guide, which again, was very nice, told me that he had received complaints before and that he has been trying to get the company head to change it.  The reason that I accepted the partial refund was for a few reasons.  We did get a daylong trip, meeting some great people, and got a fantastic meal, along with some good pictures.  The Moroccan people are not exactly rich, and I didn't want to get a full refund, but at the same time, it was blatant false advertisement.  I am considering waiting a month and then checking to see if the listing has been changed to the appropriate name and then messaging them if necessary.

We did get to see the desert from the car window, but it killed my neck to turn and look low enough to look out the window.  I had wanted to spend time walking around the desert, even if it was only for a half hour.  When you go with a tour, you lose the freedom to adapt to health problems, and you lose the control to determine exactly where you get to go.  With our driver to Volubilis and Meknes, he was willing to go or do whatever we wanted.  That style is better than this, but I still prefer to do it all myself if possible.